Blood money rates revised: Up to SR400,000 for murder

Last updated: Wednesday, September 07, 2011 12:29 AM

Auto insurance companies to raise monthly premiums

RIYADH – Diya – blood money – for homicide and manslaughter has been raised to SR400,000 and SR300,000 respectively, according to a report in Asharq Alawsat.
In Shariah law, a person convicted of homicide will face death penalty unless the victim’s family choose to accept blood money and forgo revenge. As for a person convicted of manslaughter (unintentional murder), only blood money is paid.
Blood money, under Islamic law, is the price of 100 camels. The decision to amend the amount of Diya was officially approved following a request by the High Court.
The Board of Senior Ulema discussed the issue since the current value of Diya was based on nearly 30-year-old rates.
The increased rate of Diya reflect more recent prices. Blood money for premeditated and semi-premeditated murder will now be SR400,000, up from SR110,000. The rate for unintentional murder has been raised from SR100,000 to SR300,000.
Judges and judicial experts expect the doubling of blood money to reduce crime rate in the Kingdom.
Auto insurance companies also expect to benefit out of it as they may now increase their monthly premiums on this basis.
Lutfi Al-Zain, CEO of MedGulf, said, “Raising insurance premiums is inevitable due to the increase in the blood money. Insurance premiums against others won’t be doubled but they will be raised reasonably.”
Fawaz Al-Hiji, Director of Business Development at Al-Tawiniya Insurance Company, said his company in conjunction with authorities concerned will conduct a study to set new insurance rates that commensurate with the danger rates.
“The study will be based on previous statistics and will take into consideration the increase in blood money,” he said. — SG